Excerpts from the chapter "Racial Identity Hermeneutics":
Considering early Christianity’s embrace of diversity, the ideology of one Christian race or a white-driven melting pot theory is an illusion and must melt away. Often the ideal of oneness or unity is quixotic and hides the face of hegemonic control in which some people or groups are prioritized over against others. In the end, racial identity hermeneutics aims at dismantling the hegemonic ideology of oneness/unity and fosters a culture of care, diversity, and solidarity. What follows is in this order: “Racial/Ethnic Identity from Biblical Texts” and “Interpreting Biblical Texts through the Lens of Racial/Ethnic Identity.” In the former, we will see both the importance and entanglement of race/ethnicity from biblical texts. In the latter, we will explore cases of racial identity hermeneutics with select texts from both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament (366).
*Yung Suk Kim, "Racial Identity Hermeneutics," in
Postconservative Theological Interpretation, edited by Ronald T. Michener and Mark A. Lamport, 365-380 (Cascade, 2024).
